Introduction
Welcome to Mickey's blog, a blog about a dog who has been there for me and made me smile even when I thought I couldn't any more. A dog who was sent to me by a loving God who knew I needed him as much as he needed me.
Mickey's story is much like other adopted dog's stories. Left at a kill shelter at only six months because his owners didn't want him any more. He waited and waited, but because of his age and because of his energy level he was never taken home and so awaited his death. But Mickey was one of the lucky ones, the rare few who are rescued by those non-kill shelters to be given more time to find their forever home. After waiting patiently for over a year, we finally found each other at a Petco in Austin.
Five years later, Mickey is my companion, best friend and and athlete. With elite and master titles in multiple Agility venues, he competes all over the state, traveling from hotel to hotel. Not only that, he's a Canine Good Citizen and loved by everyone who meets him.
Unfortunately, the unthinkable has happened. And though its fairly common in working, athletic dogs, I was devastated and distraught. Mickey was diagnosed with an ACL tear/rupture on April 3rd 2009 and after a long weekend of research and studying the procedure, he was admitted into Central Texas Veterinary Specialty Hospital for a much needed TPLO surgery by Dr. Kerpsack.
*I'm not a vet and and in no way am I liable for any information on this blog. Please contact your local vet for information on medications or treatments.
PLAYING AROUND
It has been hard keeping Mickey from just barking out of boredom.. he just barks and barks. "HEY! Pay attention to me!" He has soooo much energy it's insane and getting very difficult to control. So a couple things.
- One - Mickey now goes with me places. When I go to feed the horses in the morning and evening he rides in the gator with me (which he used to do before his injury). I tie him in the front seat so he can't jump off when he sees the cows or gets excited and he drives out there with me and sits in the gator while I feed and do horse work, like riding. He's the happiest man in the world.
- Two - Games, I'm starting to come up with games. Lots of games. Like.. playing a quiet game of tug while he is lying on the ground (which he sort of did anyway before his injury, he likes lying down and playing rather than standing up. I think that's from all the years of playing with young dogs or dogs smaller than him.) I'm also playing the "pick which hand game" with a little piece of his kibble. He's having a really hard time with the "using your nose" part of it. He is really sight oriented for a dog. And so I kinda came up with my own version of the game. When I pretend to "shuffle the treat between hands" behind my back I swing my hand a little each time I switch hands. He watches my hands/arms swing and keeps the memory until I show my hands. He therefore knows that if my hand swung a little to my right that it will be in my right hand. So he uses his paw to pick that hand. He loves it. haha. But that's it for the games inventions so far. I'll be coming up with more in the future.
- Three - Walks. He loves his walks and they do tire him out a little. So I try and make them as variable as possible and in different places and and varying times in the day to keep him interested and always curious. Because we live on a ranch its not too hard to change up where we walk to.
Anyway, I took a video of him walking to keep track of his progress. I think he's putting about 80% weight on it. The problem seems to be that he's very reluctant to flex it while walking.. you might notice in the video that he really is almost "swinging" it as he walks. Now, he does this to a certain degree with both back legs. This I think is a side affect from the fact that his lower spine (between his hips) has begun to fuse together in an advancing stage of arthritis. It's not Hip Dysplasia. His hips are in fact not that bad, which surprised me. But his right leg where the surgery was seems to swing more than the other, reasonably enough. It's a good thing to be aware of though as PT progresses.
Here is a video of him playing and him walking! Enjoy!
He's looking good : ) Glad to hear he is starting to do some activities with you again. it is such a great feeling to have them back to almost normal - a little goes a long way!
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